Suicide risk 'higher in one-parent children'

Children from one-parent families are more likely to attempt suicide and are twice as likely to suffer mental illness, according to a controversial study by Swedish scientists.

Growing up with only one parent is one of many factors that can contribute to psychological problems in children, particularly boys, but it does play an important role.

"Our findings showed increased risk of psychiatric disease, suicide or suicide attempt, injury and addiction compared with children in two-parent households," said Gunilla Ringback Weitoft of the National Board of Health and Welfare in Stockholm.

She added that economic and social circumstances were also crucial and that very serious problems in the children of single parents were not common.

"These results are important because they consistently show there are risks related to lone parenthood," she said in an interview. She also stressed the low incidence of severe problems.

Related Articles

In the research, published in the Lancet medical journal, Dr Weitoft and her colleagues found that boys in single-parent families had the highest risk of psychological problems.

They compared records on hospital admissions and death statistics of 65,000 children living in single-parent families in Sweden with 920,000 youngsters residing with both parents.

After adjusting for other factors including economic status and parental addiction and abuse problems, the single-parent children had more than double the risk of suicide attempt and alcohol-related disease.

But Dr Weitoft stressed that she and her team did not interview the children and had no information about the youngsters' relationship with their parents or their social networks.